NOCTILUCA March 2017

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Rosa Parks By Sara Fleming

activist, Elea- in history. She as her husband anitarian cause eneral Assem- iminary United person in 1947 o aided to cre- . She really be- here deserved ons such as the rograms for the in the cause of f they were de- well. After her

After a stressful day working as a seamstress, Rosa Parks walked to the back of a city bus in the colored section and chose her seat. As the bus continued its route, more white pas- sengers entered the bus. The driver of the bus walked towards the back of the bus and asked Rosa to surrender her seat, but she refused. The bus driver called the police, Rosa was arrest- ed, and a revolutionary movement shook the town. The head of the local chapter of NAACP, E.D. Nixon, asked the black community to boycott the buses on the day of Dec. 5; Rosa’s trial would take place on that day, according to Biog- raphy.com. The bus boycott was a success, but meanwhile at Rosa’s trial, she was found guilty and was fined a total of $14.

Photo by National Archives

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, as it was come to be known by, was such a success that it was continued for many more months; The finances for city transit took a severe plummet. However, there were many opposers to this boycott. E.D. Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr’s houses were bombed, black churches were burned, and the city even canceled the insurance plan for the taxis boycotters were using instead of the bus. But the boycott still raged on. Eventually, the African American community took action to the courts, where racial segregation laws were deemed unconstitutional. And as they say, the rest is history.

Photo by The Library of Congress

erson of the Presidential Commission on the Status of he workplace and helped them avoid injury and exploi- s “one of the most esteemed women in the world”. She generation of women. cus on men’s tory ential pioneers ey leave behind s history month to lebrate the invaluable n have made to the o do you think is the oman in history?

Lise Meitner By Ahmad Abdel-Azim

A brilliant woman in the shadows of achievement, Lise Meitner, born in 1878, contributed to the discovery of several concepts in radioactivity and nuclear physics. Nevertheless, she never received recognition for her major contributions until after her death. Meitner worked with the chemist, Otto Hahn, for thirty years. Together, they discovered the ele- ment protactinium and the Auger effect, where when an inner-level electron is removed, an electron from a higher energy level may fill the vacancy, leading to a release of energy. During World War II, Meit- ner was forced to flee from Germany to Sweden where she and Hahn con- tinued their research apart. In 1939, Meitner and Hahn discovered nucle- ar fission. Subsequently, Meitner and another man named Otto Frisch were

Lila Metko “Amelia Earheart flying around the world is really courageous especially for that time.”

Nathan Figueroa “Rosa Parks, because she fought for her rights and was brave enough to do what she did at a date and age where it was a big deal because of all the racism going on, and it did have an impact of America today.”

Photo by Department of Energy National Archives

the first to conclude that nuclear fission, where the nucleus of an atom of uranium is split into two smaller nuclei, must release a great deal of energy. These discoveries Meitner and others made eventually led to the start of the Manhattan project and nuclear weapons used duringWorldWar II. However, in 1944, the Nobel Peace Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Otto Hahn for his discoveries in nuclear fission. Meitner’s contributions to the discover- ies were completely ignored despite her enormous contributions most likely due to her flee from Germany. In 1966 her work was finally acknowledged when Meitner, Hahn, and Strassman were awarded the Enrico Fermi Award. In 1968, Lise Meitner, a truly influential woman in history, died in England. To honor her, element number 109, Meitnerium (Mt), was named after Lise Meitner. Many individuals even consider Meitner to be the “most significant woman scientist of the 20th Century”.

Wyatt Marshall “Judge Judy is inspirational because she enforces the law and helps people who otherwise could not help themselves.”

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Barbara McClintock By Ahmad Abdel-Azim

anging scientist, r another in the etition. After at- lin worked in the arbon and graph- at Cambridge in her most famous istook her for a n he realized his t of her because s and pubs were fter hours to ex- ermined to solve Wilkins stole a her scientist who

Born in 1902, Barbara McClintock was truly a testimony to the influence of women in the field of genet- ics. Her work in plant cytogenetics was a foundation for many of the most recent discoveries in genetics.

McClintock studied the heredity characteristics of organisms, such as corn. She observed these characteristics from generation to generation on the chromosomal level, trying to find the changes in chromosomes when the trait is passed down. Later in her career, during the 1940’s and 1950’s, she proved the genetic concept of chromosomal crossover during replication, where chromosomes exchange parts of genetic material to make new chromosomes. This in turn leads to genetic varia- tion in the species. She also discovered transposition, where genes move around in the chromosome. Moreover, McClintock showed that genes were responsible for the phenotypes of an organism. Her work was the basis for many of the dis- coveries in the future, such as the discovery of DNA. The genetic material that she proved to cross over during replication is now known to be DNA. Her incredible work received recognition in 1983 when she was awarded t he Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.” Barbara McClintock died in 1992, a clearly significant woman in the field of genetics.

Photo from National Library of Medicine

Photo from National Library of Medicine

h look as though it is only supporting his discoveries. continues and before dying of ovarian cancer in 1958, virus, helping researchers progress in the medical and